Poll commission head dismissed

Poll commission head dismissed

The Jakarta Post, Medan/Jayapura

The head of a regental general elections commission has been
dismissed for allegedly breaching the commission's code of
ethics, local poll officials say, while more protests marred the
inauguration of new councillors on Thursday.

The officials said Abdul Aziz was removed as Mandailing Natal
(Madina) General Elections Commission chairman on the
recommendation of a plenary session of the Madina commission.

North Sumatra General Elections Commission (KPUD) head Irham
Buana Nasution said his office had decided that only 32 of the 35
elected legislative candidates would be installed as new
councillors in Madina.

However, Aziz had discretely proposed to North Sumatra
Governor Tengku Rizal Nurdin that all 35 elected councillors be
sworn in on Thursday, without the knowledge of the four Madina
General Elections Commission members, Irham added.

"Although only 32 elected candidates were inaugurated, lack of
communication on the part of Abdul Aziz, who brought forward
three other names that had been excluded from the list, prompted
the four members of the Madina poll commission to convene for a
plenary session and decide to dismiss him," Irham said.

The Aug. 30 meeting also recommended that Aziz be replaced by
another member Fahrizal Efendi. "We were notified of the
decision, as was the central General Elections Commission (KPU)
in Jakarta," Irham added.

He said the three elected members -- one from the National
Mandate Party (PAN) and two others from the Golkar Party -- could
not be sworn in, as it had been proven that they used fake school
diplomas to qualify for the election.

Irham defended the decision to fire Aziz, saying it was in
compliance with Law No. 12/2003 on elections.

Meanwhile, dozens of students staged a protest as all 30 new
members of Papua's Jayapura legislative council were installed on
Thursday.

They urged the new councillors to sign a "political contract",
under which the new members pledged to avoid corruption, side
with the people, respect the supremacy of the law and uphold
human rights (particularly women's and children's) as well as
seek to raise the education budget by 20 percent.

However, only five of the 30 councillors were willing to sign
the contract. "The people want the contract to be signed, and it
will not disadvantage us, so I signed it," said councillor
Ichwanul Musimin of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

A similar contract was proposed on Thursday by a number of
non-governmental organizations in Central Java, ahead of the
swearing in of new councillors on Friday.

Eko Junianto, coordinator of the NGOs, was quoted by Antara as
saying in Semarang that the new council members should sign the
so-termed Central Java People's Charter" to discourage corruption
such as that which marred the terms of their predecessors.

"This charter is for the people of Central Java. We will
distribute copies of it to local bureaucrats, NGOs and other
civil society members, so as to jointly assume control," he
added.